According to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, the employer must provide his subordinates with not only safety, but also such conditions under which labor protection standards are observed. In particular, the temperature standards at the workplace, adopted at the state level. Articles of the Labor Code 209 and 212 regulate the requirements for an event that creates the appropriate sanitary conditions and sanitary conditions.
What does the law say?
Sanitary standards that relate to humidity and temperature of industrial and office premises should be highlighted. All necessary numbers are contained in SanPiN 2.2.4.548962. This is the main document, according to which normal working conditions must be ensured, in particular - humidity conditions, temperature standards in the room and other important factors.
An increased degree of ambient air can be considered one of the strongest factors that inhibit working capacity. The mentioned sanitary standards determine that the temperature in the room during the summer period should not be higher than 25 ° . Relative humidity does not have the right to fall below 40%. It is with these values that the necessary thermal comfort can be provided throughout the entire working day or shift.
Compliance with these conditions does not lead to deviations in the well-being of workers and creates the necessary conditions for normal work. Ensuring the optimal microclimate in production facilities without fail requires the employer to equip the workshop or office with heating, as well as ventilation and air conditioning systems.
Do not break the law!
The absence or malfunction of any of these systems leads to unacceptable temperature rises and poses a threat to the health of workers. This in itself is a violation of the law.
In this case, employees are divided into categories. For example, office employees are assigned sanitary standards to category A. If the temperature in the workplace rises above certain figures, they are entitled to reduce working time by the time period that will be described below.
The required microclimate indicators are given in section seven of SanPiN. Outside temperature in the workplace may cause a legitimate reduction in working hours. At the same time, the organization is required to organize a commission, the task of which is to measure it indoors.
And then what?
The results of such an examination are recorded in a protocol. It provides the data obtained and is compared with the normative. Shortening of the working day occurs on the basis of the order in accordance with the requirements given in SanPiN. The document must contain a link to the protocol with the data of temperature measurements.
This is done to protect employees from possible damage to health due to cooling or overheating. It should be borne in mind that from a legal point of view, one should distinguish between the concepts of the time spent at one's workplace and the duration of a shift or a working day.
As the aforementioned SanPiN states, the temperature at the workplace should be such that the presence of people in the production environment is brought into compliance with hygiene requirements. Moreover, they rely on Article 212 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.
What can be done
As ways to solve this problem, you should consider additional breaks, earlier departure of employees to their homes, transferring them to other jobs, equipment of special rooms for recreation.
If the employer refuses to comply with these requirements, he can be charged simultaneously with two offenses. This is, firstly, a violation of sanitary rules (temperature standards in the production do not comply with regulatory indicators). Secondly, labor legislation is directly ignored, since people work in inappropriate conditions.
If the employer is inactive in this situation and his refusal to provide employees with other work, the time spent in adverse conditions is equal in duration to the daily working day (shift). That is, we can talk about overtime for employees on the initiative of the employer with all the ensuing legal and financial consequences.
How to take care of yourself
What can ordinary employees do to normalize the situation in the field of ensuring their own rights to safe and comfortable working conditions? In the event that the temperature standards at the workplace are not respected, they are encouraged to file complaints simultaneously with the authorities of the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Resources and labor inspections. In such cases, the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation provides a fine for legal entities, the amount of which is on the same order as the costs required to equip jobs with fans and air conditioners.
As you know, our people are used to working in any conditions. It is sometimes striking to what extent the norms of the temperature regime at the workplace can be violated. People have to work, clanging their teeth from the cold or literally panting due to unbearable heat. This also applies to mental workers who spend days at a “civilized” office. The labor process in such inappropriate conditions has become so familiar that people no longer think about the violation of their legal rights.
Temperature standards in the workplace
Of course, both jobs and activities can vary greatly. A bank employee is in some conditions, a loader or crane operator - in completely different conditions. In this regard, standards have been developed for each individual profession.
Any type of work belongs to one of the available categories for which the necessary microclimatic conditions and the permissible temperature range are prescribed. Unfortunately, to consider all of them in one article is unrealistic. Therefore, we dwell on the working conditions of office workers.
What should we know?
Perhaps for someone this information will sound for the first time. Do you know that if you are forced to work at a temperature that does not meet established standards, then you have every right to reduce your working time?
Probably many, having read these lines, will only grin. Anyone in our country knows what it is like to achieve law and justice, including in the workplace. Nevertheless, the possession of this information will, in necessary cases, allow you to “pump up rights”, seeking the opportunity to take time off home early or even ask the employer to pay for overtime, if you are not able to force him to comply with temperature standards at the workplace in the office.
In any organization, there will always be an active “backbone” of workers who will seek justice by writing complaints and all sorts of pressure on management. We hope this information will help them in this matter.
We arm ourselves with a thermometer
So, we measure the temperature at our workplace. It should not be more than 23-25 ° C. It's about working in the summer. If winter is outside, these figures are from 22 to 24 °. In this case, the readings of the thermometer should be linked to air humidity, the permissible values of which are from 40 to 60%.
Of course, the temperature can deviate from the required by some allowable value, which is 1 or 2 degrees, but no more. Throughout the working day, the temperature change should not be more than 4 degrees.
If these conditions are met, you must work in the office for a full 8 hours. If the temperature reached 29 ° per day (that is, it exceeded the maximum permissible by 4 ° ), your requirement to allow you to leave work earlier exactly one hour will be completely legal.
With a 30-degree heat, you have the right to work no more than 6 hours. If the thermometer rolls over 32.5 ° C, theoretically you have the right to work no more than an hour.
If the street is cold
A similar situation is with work on cold winter days. If the thermometer is only 19 degrees Celsius, the duration of the working day is 7 hours, at 18 degrees - 6. At the same time, the exact temperature is measured at a height of about a meter from the floor.
The question is whether such scrupulous measurements will bring practical benefits, coupled with the requirements for the employer to strictly comply with the rules and regulations? The fact is that the latter, most likely, will be more profitable once to spend money on installing an air conditioner or heater instead of regularly paying fines for violation with concomitant hassle.
Therefore, if you value your own health, do not be afraid of the authorities. Your goal is to ensure that the temperature standards in the workplace are respected. If you possess the information contained in the legislative documents designed to protect the average employee and show due perseverance, it is quite possible to achieve justice.